Merriam-Webster Adds 'Stan' To Dictionary

Merriam-Webster announced Tuesday it has added “stan” to its online dictionary as both a noun and verb.

Listed as an “often disparaging” slang word, the noun “stan” is defined as “an extremely or excessively enthusiastic and devoted fan” and the verb is “to exhibit fandom to an extreme or excessive degree : to be an extremely devoted and enthusiastic fan of someone or something.”

The word was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2017.

“The English language never sleeps, and neither does the dictionary,” Merriam-Webster explained, in a statement. “The work of revising a dictionary is constant, and it mirrors the culture’s need to make sense of the world with words. There are always new things to be named and new uses for existing words to be explained.”

The company said the word – one of 640 it added to the dictionary – comes “from Stan, name of such a fan in the song "Stan" (2000) by the American rap artist Eminem (Marshall Bruce Mathers III).”

Canadian actor Devon Sawa portrays “Stan” in the video for Eminem’s track.